Abstract || This article examines the specificity of the genre of Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes, a work in between the limits of fiction, autobiography, and the essay. Starting from the theoretical standpoints of the German philosophical tradition, which understands the essay as a fragmentary form of research in opposition to science, a theoretical proximity appears between Adorno and (the self-proclaimed French essayist) Barthes, who, as Montaigne, aims and fails to explain himself fully due to fragmentary dispersion and the emptiness behind language.